THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019 • VOL. 122, ISS. 36
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
“I do not trust Kenon Brinkley. He took advantage of me.”
“Anyone I know can read every detail of my sexual history with him for the rest of my life.”
“I felt alone until now.”
“When I initially shared my story, I thought I was his only victim.”
“I was vulnerable enough to show the deepest parts of my soul to someone that violated my trust.”
IN THEIR WORDS
“This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with Kenon Brinkley needing to see consequences for his actions.”
“I was told it was my fault.”
“It is important to me to speak out about this with these other beautiful, strong women.”
“I am still in the process of remembering who I was before this happened to me.”
“Kenon abused my trust.” Women accusing Kenon Brinkley of sexual assault spoke during Wednesday’s SGA meeting. Brinkley, who resigned as student body president, has not responded to requests for comment. Below are excerpts from the women’s statements. MAIA CUELLAR I have had the absolute honor of talking within a closed group of amazing women who have shared their stories about the mental, emotional, and physical abuse that Kenon Brinkley has put them through. This is my story. Kenon and I had an explicit conversation about the importance of using condoms when having sex. Kenon told me that himself and his fraternity preach the importance of safe sex. Kenon and I had multiple consensual sexual interactions before with protection. Kenon had my trust that he would continue to only have sex with me while wearing protection. Kenon abused my trust on June 17 of 2017. Kenon penetrated me without wearing a condom without my consent. He made sure I wasn’t looking when he did it. ... Whether or not you believe that what happened to me constitutes rape is not for me to convince you of. I have shared my story with the public in graphic detail. My family members can read it — my siblings, my parents, my employers. Anyone I know can read every detail of my sexual history with him for the rest of my life. I made this choice and shared my story in the hopes that it can protect other women from his predatory behavior. You can choose not to believe me, but you cannot deny that my story and the story of these other women shows his manipulative, abusive, and destructive pattern of behavior. When I initially shared my story, I thought I was his only victim. JOZIE CAUDILLO I’m going to begin this by strongly emphasizing the point that I am personally restricted by a university-issued No Contact order
from speaking in detail about my personal experience. But as I believe that this speech is a matter of public concern, I will simply say what happened to me and how it made me feel. ... In September of this past year, I was physically assaulted following four months of verbal, emotional, mental and psychological abuse. ... I was too emotionally invested, intimidated, and fearful to agree to pursue an investigation. I believe I was manipulated into telling Title IX not to pursue an investigation at the time, as I was promised that what happened to me could be rectified in other ways. It never was. After a few months, I began to feel that I was cheated in silence — that there was never going to be any justice for what had happened to me. I began asking questions about what would happen if I did decide to come forward with Title IX. I was told that I should really think about what I was doing. I was told that no one would believe my story. I was told I should have left when I had the chance. I was told that I should have never let it get to that point. I was told that I was asking for it. And I was told it was my fault. ... I still remember hearing my own voice scream my roommate’s name over and over as loud as I could so she could come and save me. I remember begging for hours — please just let me go, please just let me go. I remember being pinned to the ground, verbally assaulted to the point of dissociating from my own body as my only way to escape the trauma. I can still hear the sound of my shower door breaking off its hinges from the force of my small body being shoved into it. I wake up every morning with scars on my body, and those scars will be what I have to live with for the rest of my life. Because of what happened to me, I slit my wrists that following morning for the first time in my life. ...
I was vulnerable enough to show the deepest parts of my soul to someone that violated my trust by using it to hurt me — verbally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically. Now it is time I believe that we all need to look within ourselves and stand with survivors against those that prey on vulnerable women to violate their bodies, trust, and minds. EMILY RAINE I met Kenon Brinkley in May of 2015 at a state forensics competition in Topeka. I was 15, about to turn 16, and he was 18 and about to graduate. We added each other on Facebook and continued to talk for a while before exchanging numbers. ... In approximately September or October of 2015, he told me he loved me and said that love to him was a verb and used that to pressure me into saying yes to having sex with him. I told him that if we ever had sex, he must use a condom. I was very clear on the fact that my consent was conditional — no condom meant no consent. He agreed and said that using protection was very important. We had intercourse three times over the course of about a year. The first time was consensual. ... The other two times we had sex were in the back seat of his car at a park in downtown Wichita, and both times, he removed the condom without my knowledge. ... To guilt me into consenting to unprotected sex, he said that he had incredible control over his body and that if I made him use a condom, it meant I didn’t trust him. I always told him that if we were going to have intercourse, he must wear a condom. ... This man destroyed my sense of self-worth and my ability to trust anyone, and it is important to me
to speak out about this with these other beautiful, strong women. ANONYMOUS WSU STUDENT WHOSE STATEMENT WAS READ ALOUD We matched on Tinder in August of 2017. It was my first few weeks of college. He was cute and poetic, so we messaged for a bit. A majority of it was quite sexual, but then again, it was Tinder. After a bit of talking, we agreed to meet in a hotel. I said I’d drink and smoke weed with him. I said I’d have sex with him. I told myself it would be fun. I knew how to drink and I knew how to smoke and he knew what he was doing. This is what I told myself. I had one drink. There were probably two shots of vodka in that drink, at most. From the kitchenette, we moved to the bathroom, and he pulled out a tub full of cat litter and marijuana. Soon, the pipe was full, and he handed it to me. I took a drag, and then coughed until I cried. I swore I wasn’t new to it, and he laughed at me. I stopped with the substances at that point. The substances did not stop with me. They hit me like a truck. I think I may have been numb. I was so intoxicated I was silly. This was not one drink, one drag behavior. In fact, the friend who picked me up afterward categorized my behavior as “hella drunk.” ... I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t. I told myself that I consented beforehand, and that was good enough. But I just wanted to sleep. I remember almost falling asleep during a lull in activity. He got up to grab a condom — or to replace the condom. I don’t remember. I know I was half asleep, lying on my side, when he suggested changing positions I did not want to. I could not move my body. After 20 or so seconds, I pulled myself out of the stupor, and I complied. I was quite inebriated. But I do remember saying, “Stop, please, ouch, it hurts.” He did not stop. He kept going because “Oh, but, I’m so close.” This was also a lie. It hurt. It kept fucking hurting. And he did not stop.
BRINKLEY RESIGNS; ROWELL SWORN IN AS STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT • PAGE 3